s a shining thing of wood and metal from
the end of which rose a thin wreath of blue-gray smoke.

And then the voice of the Ho-don warrior rang clear upon the ears of
the silent throng. "Thus speaks the true Jad-ben-Otho," he cried,
"through this his Messenger of Death. Cut the bonds of the prisoners.
Cut the bonds of the Dor-ul-Otho and of Ja-don, King of Pal-ul-don, and
of the woman who is the mate of the son of god."

Pan-sat, filled with the frenzy of fanaticism saw the power and the
glory of the regime he had served crumpled and gone. To one and only
one did he attribute the blame for the disaster that had but just
overwhelmed him. It was the creature who lay upon the sacrificial altar
who had brought Lu-don to his death and toppled the dreams of power
that day by day had been growing in the brain of the under priest.

The sacrificial knife lay upon the altar where it had fallen from the
dead fingers of Obergatz. Pan-sat crept closer and then with a sudden
lunge he reached forth to seize the handle of the blade, and even as
his clutching fingers were poised above it, the strange thing in the
hands of the strange creature upon the temple wall cried out its
crashing word of doom and Pan-sat the under priest, screaming, fell
back upon the dead body of his master.

"Seize all the priests," cried Ta-den to the warriors, "and let none
hesitate lest Jad-ben-Otho's messenger send forth still other bolts of
lightning."

The warriors and the people had now witnessed such an exhibition of
divine power as might have convinced an even less superstitious and
more enlightened people, and since many of them had but lately wavered
between the Jad-ben-Otho of Lu-don and the Dor-ul-Otho of Ja-don it was
not difficult for them to swing quickly back to the latter, especially
in view of the unanswerable argument in the hands of him whom Ta-den
had described as the Messenger of the Great God.

And so the warriors sprang forward now with alacrity and surrounded the
priests, and when they looked again at the western wall of the temple
court they saw pouring over it a great force of warriors. And the thing
that startled and appalled them was the fact that many of these were
black and hairy Waz-don.

At their head came the stranger with the shiny weapon and on his right
was Ta-den, the Ho-don, and on his left Om-at, the black gund of
Kor-ul-ja.

A warrior near the altar had seized the sacrificial knife and cut
Tarzan's bonds and al